CitySurfing Orlando

In town as part of the huge Harry Potter event at Universal Orlando this weekend, several of the stars from the HP movies visited a local WalMart to promote the release of the last movie on DVD.

The event took place on November 11, 2011, to promote the first day on-sale release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 on DVD. The stars signed autographs at the WalMart on Turkey Lake Rd, just south of Universal Orlando, for the hundreds of Potter fans in attendance.

From left to right in the photo:

• Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan)
• Katie Leung (Cho Chang)
• Jennifer Smith (Lavender Brown)
• Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas)

Photo courtesy of Deb Silva. Do not reproduce without permission.

This weekend female artists from across the state will be in Orlando for the fifth annual Ella Music Fest.

According to organizers, Ella stands for elevate, listen, love and appreciate and the fest itself aims to celebrates Florida female artistry with music, visual art, poetry, and crafts.

In addition to a slew of musicians and visual artists, there will be a yoga session and a vendor area. The full schedule can be found online.

The 2011 edition of the festival takes place September 30 to October 2 at Orlando Brewing Company (1301 Atlanta Avenue), located just south of downtown, near the Orlando Amtrak station.

Tickets are $10 for a single day or $20 for a three-day weekend pass. All ages welcome.

If you were at the Fireworks at the Fountain on the Fourth of July at Lake Eola, you might have seen a product demonstration for the WingFlyer.

This unique mode of transport is a cross between a scooter and a bicycle, with a touch of a stair stepper exerciser added in. There’s no seat and you ride it standing up, like a scooter. It does have pedals like a bike but instead of a normal circular motion, you step up and down, as if on a stair stepper.

We recently received one from the company to try at our office. It arrived in a smaller box than I thought and it took two of us to put it together – we had to unfold it, connect the handlebars and the step pedals. We had the WingFlyer ready to ride within 20 minutes.
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Look out Harry Potter, you may soon need all the magic of Hogwarts to compete against the newest attraction planned for Walt Disney World.

Just announced today, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide is joining forces with filmmaker James Cameron and Fox Filmed Entertainment to bring the world of Avatar to life at Disney’s theme parks. The agreement gives The Walt Disney Company exclusive global theme park rights to the Avatar franchise and provides for Avatar-themed lands at any Disney park. The other locations will be determined by Disney and its international theme park partners.

How awesome is that?! Even better, the world of Pandora will be brought to life with the first Avatar-themed land planned for Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park right here in Orlando.

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Florida Hospital’s Celebration Health is getting ready to open a new patient tower next week on August 11th.

In the days leading up to the event, they have someone out and about the community helping to get the word out.

Meet hospitaliologist JP Evans, who is camped out in front of the hospital in a 36-ft Airstream trailer, ready to answer any questions people might have on the new addition to the hospital.

What is a hospitaliologist? According to Evans, it’s defined as “a person who studies improvements in patient care based upon treatment and technology innovations developed by today’s best hospitals and health care providers.”

He’s been sharing his exploits, including several jaunts around town, at his Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages, if you want to follow him online.

He also welcomes anybody and everybody to come hang out with him at his trailer.

Celebration Health will open their tower on Thursday, August 11, at 6pm. There will be an official ceremony, followed by tours for the public.